Materials are the key roadblocks for the commercialization of energy conversion devices in fuel cells and solar cells. Significant research has focused on tuning the intrinsic properties of materials at the nanometer scale. The soft template mediated controlled fabrication of advanced nanostructured materials is attracting considerable interest due to the promising applications of these materials in catalysis and electrocatalysis. Swollen hexagonal lyotropic liquid crystals (SLCs) consist of oil-swollen surfactant-stabilized 1D, 2D or 3D nanometric assemblies regularly arranged in an aqueous solvent...

In recent years, the efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs) has increased to more than 13%, while different barriers are on the way for reaching higher efficiencies. One crucial barrier is the recombination of charge carriers, which can either occur as the bulk recombination of photogenerated charges or the recombination of photogenerated charges and electrodic induced charges (EICs). This work studies the impact of EICs on the recombination lifetime in OSCs. To this end, the net recombination lifetime of photogenerated charge carriers in the presence of EICs is measured by means of conventional and newly developed transient photovoltage techniques...

BODIPY (4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacenes) dyes possess intense absorption profiles that can be exploited in various light harvesting applications. However, redox stability and optimization of frontier molecular orbital energies in these dyes are critical for their successful incorporation into new solar cell materials. This article describes the synthesis and characterization of a family of β-substituted BODIPY-ferrocene dyads with push-pull architectures. Designed to stabilize the photo-oxidized BODIPY for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications, some deleterious electron transfer behaviours emerged when the ferrocene unit was conjugated to electron deficient BODIPYs...

Toxicity as well as chemical instability issues of halide perovskites based on organic-inorganic lead-containing materials still remains the main drawbacks for perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, we discuss the preparation of copper (Cu)-based hybrid materials, where we replace lead (Pb) with non-toxic Cu metal for lead free perovskite solar cells; investigate of its potential towards solar cells applications based on experimental and theoretical studies. The formation of (CH3NH3)2CuX4 [(CH3NH3)2CuCl4, (CH3NH3)2CuCl2I2, and (CH3NH3)2CuCl2Br2] were discussed in details...

Current efforts on lead sulfide quantum dot (PbS QD) solar cells are mostly paid to the device architecture engineering and postsynthetic surface modification, while very rare work regarding the optimization of PbS synthesis is reported. Here, PbS QDs are successfully synthesized using PbO and PbAc2 · 3H2 O as the lead sources. QD solar cells based on PbAc-PbS have demonstrated a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.82% (and independently certificated values of 10.62%), which is significantly higher than the PCE of 9...

Over hundreds of new organic semiconductor molecules have been synthesized as hole transport materials (HTMs) for perovskite solar cells. However, to date, the well-known N2 , N2 , N2' , N2' , N7 , N7 , N7' , octakis-(4-methoxyphenyl)-9,9-spirobi-[9,9'-spirobi[9 H-fluorene]-2,2',7,7'-tetramine (spiro-OMeTAD) is still the best choice for the best perovskite device performance. Nevertheless, there is a consensus that spiro-OMeTAD by itself is not stable enough for long-term stable devices, and its market price makes its use in large-scale production costly...

Truly stretchable electronics, wherein all components themselves permit elastic deformation as the whole devices are stretched, exhibit unique advantages over other strategies, such as simple fabrication process, high integrity of entire components and intimate integration with curvilinear surfaces. In contrast to the stretchable devices using stretchable interconnectors to integrate with rigid active devices, truly stretchable devices are realized with or without intentionally employing structural engineering (e...

CuO nanowires (NWs) with the diameters ranging from 130 to 275 nm have been successfully prepared by electrospinning and calcination technique, followed by a calcination process. Inverted planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with the structure of ITO/CuO NWs/PEDOT:PSS/CH3NH3PbI3/PCBM/Bphen/Ag were designed, achieving a best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.87% , which is 21% improvement compared with that of the control PSCs without CuO NWs. By the characterizations of optical microscope, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it is found that CuO NWs have uniform morphology and orderly arrangement...

Organic-inorganic hybrid lead halide perovskites have been widely investigated in optoelectronics both experimentally and theoretically. The present work incorporates chemical modified graphene into nanocrystal SnO2 as electron transporting layer (ETL) for highly efficient planar perovskite solar cells. The modification of SnO2 with highly conductive two-dimensional naphthalene diimide-graphene can increase surface hydrophobicity and form van der Waals interaction between the surfactant and the organic-inorganic hybrid lead halide perovskite compounds...

Lead halide materials have seen a recent surge of interest from the photovoltaics community following the observation of surprisingly high photovoltaic performance, with opto-electronic properties similar to GaAs. This begs the question; what is the limit for the efficiency of these materials? It has been known that at 1-sun the efficiency limit of crystalline silicon is ~29%, despite the Shockley-Queisser (SQ) limit for its bandgap being ~33%, the discrepancy being due to strong Auger recombination. In this article, we show that Methyl Ammonium Lead Iodide (MAPbI3) likewise has a larger than expected Auger coefficient...

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) plays a key role in regulating cell survival, proliferation and migration, and its overexpression and activation has been correlated with cancer progression. Cancer therapies targeting EGFR have been applied in the clinic with some success. We show, by confocal microscopy analysis, that illumination of adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (Human A549 - EGFR biosensor cell line) with 280 nm at irradiance levels up to 20 times weaker than the UVB solar output for short periods of time (15-45 min) prevents EGF-mediated activation of EGFR located on the cell membrane, preventing or reducing cellular disaggregation, formation of filopodia and cell migration...

Engineering photons on a nanoscale via guidance and localization by metal nanostructures has a profound influence on the performance of devices that try to mimic the process of photosynthesis. The conventional route for the synthesis of plasmonic nanoparticles and their integration into the porous structure of the photoanode either directly or after being capped with a dielectric material not only adds to the complexity but also to the cost of the cell. The present study introduces the concept of a plasmonic blocking layer that concurrently acts as a light harvester and an electron-blocking layer in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), wherein the plasmonic silver nanoparticles are incorporated into an Nb2 O5 blocking layer by a simple one-step process...

Lead-based solar cells have gained ground in recent years, showing efficiency as high as 20 % which is on par with silicon solar cells. However, the toxicity of lead makes it non ideal candidate in solar cells. Alternatively, tin-based perovskites have been proposed due to their non-toxic nature and abundance in nature. Unfortunately, these solar cells suffer from low efficiency and stability. Here, we propose a new type of perovskite material based on mixed tin and germanium. The material showed a band gap around 1...

The ternary blend approach has the potential to enhance the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of polymer solar cells (PSCs) by providing complementary absorption and efficient charge generation. Unfortunately, most PSCs are processed with toxic halogenated solvents, which are harmful to human health and the environment. Herein, we report the addition of a non-fullerene electron acceptor (ITIC) to a binary blend (P1:PC71BM, PCE = 8.07%) to produce an efficient non-halogenated green solvent-processed ternary PSC system with a high PCE of 10...

Herein, we report use of [Li+ @C60 ]TFSI- as a dopant for spiro-MeOTAD in lead halide perovskite solar cells. This approach gave an air stability nearly 10-fold that of conventional devices using Li+ TFSI- . Such high stability is attributed to the hydrophobic nature of [Li+ @C60 ]TFSI- repelling moisture and absorbing intruding oxygen, thereby protecting the perovskite device from degradation. Furthermore, [Li+ @C60 ]TFSI- could oxidize spiro-MeOTAD without the need for oxygen. The encapsulated devices exhibited outstanding air stability for more than 1000 h while illuminated under ambient conditions...

Limited by the various inherent energy losses from multiple channels, organic solar cells show inferior device performance compared to traditional inorganic photovoltaic techniques, such as silicon and CuInGaSe. To alleviate these fundamental limitations, an integrated multiple strategy is implemented including molecular design, interfacial engineering, optical manipulation, and tandem device construction into one cell. Considering the close correlation among these loss channels, a sophisticated quantification of energy-loss reduction is tracked along with each strategy in a perspective to reach rational overall optimum...

A 5,6-difluorobenzothiazole (ffBTz) based dibromo monomer was successfully synthesized, from which new fluorinated conjugated polymers PF-ffBTz and PFN-ffBTz were prepared via copolymerizations with two fluorene based diboronic ester monomers. Twisted fluorene-ffBTz backbones enable PF-ffBTz and PFN-ffBTz with large band gaps up to 3.10 eV and deep-lying HOMO levels down to 6.2 eV. The chemical structures of PF-ffBTz and PFN-ffBTz impart some new functionalities of fluorinated conjugated polymers. PF-ffBTz can show deep blue electroluminescent (EL) emission, with high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 3...

Development of Cd-free Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 (CIGSSe)-based thin-film solar cells fabricated by all dry process is significantly intriguing to minimize optical loss at a wavelength shorter than 520 nm owing to absorption of CdS buffer layer and to be easily integrated into an in-line process for cost reduction. Cd-free CIGSSe solar cells are therefore prepared by the dry process with a structure of Zn0.9 Mg0.1 O:Al/Zn0.8 Mg0.2 O/CIGSSe/Mo/Glass. It is demonstrated that Zn0.8 Mg0.2 O and Zn0.9 Mg0.1 O:Al are appropriate as buffer and transparent conductive oxide layers with large optical band-gap energy values of 3...